A Medicated Nation

When did we stop believing that we can be OK without prescription drugs?

The freedom of pharmaceutical manufacturers to advertise directly to the public in the US has helped create the pharmaceutical boom (and addiction) that has put blinders on the American public when it comes to understanding the root cause of sickness.

There is a very good reason that the average American takes multiple prescription pills each day. For almost every illness, there is at least one drug available, even though in many cases they are completely unnecessary. TV commercials featuring happy and smiling people living active and healthy lives send the message to the public that prescription drugs pave the road to health and happiness.

Many prescription drugs are now household names, and persuasive advertising influences the public in a major way. Consumers are now asking doctors for prescriptions, just like the commercials instructs them to. Instead of doctors making recommendations on what products should be used, patients come to their doctor with a drug (or list of drugs) that they want.

Sometimes, people do not even have the condition needed for the medication, but they convince themselves that they need these drugs, setting the stage for unnecessary long-term addiction and health problems from the drug side effects.

A Pill for Every Problem

A well-treated patient is a walking “poly-pharmacy” who pops several pills for a variety of conditions ranging from high cholesterol, heart disease, and depression, to constipation, indigestion, and general aches and pains. Some common medications taken by millions have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, breast cancer, suicide, and bleeding.

Big Pharma, Big Problem

"Spending on cancer drugs was $91 billion in 2013."

IMS Health

The pharmaceutical companies are getting richer at the expense of the American public. The industry ranks in the top 5 on the Fortune 500 list of most profitable industries in the US.

A steady flow of new and exciting "magical pills" are released, promising to fix medical problems with the warning (in tiny print) that for every 1 problem they may fix, they may also cause many other side effects (some potentially fatal).

The business side of healthcare is very disturbing. Drug companies unwittingly influence doctors at a very early stage in their medical training. Medical conferences and journals are full of pharmaceutical ads targeting doctors and offering "gifts" and "incentives" to doctors to prescribe their medications.

Not only is the pharmaceutical industry bent on medicating a nation, it also charges exorbitant prices for their products, skyrocketing insurance costs. University medical researchers are now able to patent their drug discoveries, and then grant exclusive licenses to drug companies. Due to a series of laws passed by congress, pharmaceutical companies can market their drugs without any competition for 14 years and charge whatever sum they want. Only after 14 years can a generic brand be made available. These monopolies in the form of patents and FDA-approved exclusive marketing rights drive hefty profits and bleed wallets dry.

In other countries, you can buy the exact same pharmaceutical drugs at a fraction of the price, yet in the US where they are actually manufactured, the American is forced to pay top dollar. To add insult to injury, the US disallows the re-importation of those same drugs at a cheaper price because Americas need to be "protected" from what may happen to those drugs outside of the country. The simple truth is that Americans are forced to pay much higher prices than people in other countries do.

Drugs do not treat the underlying cause of a health issue:

1. They treat a symptom 2. Many foster a reliance on medications 3. Their side effects create new health problems

Power of the Lobbyists

The pharmaceutical companies form the largest lobby in Washington, and offer substantial contributions to political campaigns. Medical schools looking for commercial opportunities also receive big sponsorships from these pharmaceutical companies, and medical graduates are led to believe that modern drugs are the quickest and most effective way to cure a symptom. The subject of prevention, and educating patients on the subject of prevention through diet and lifestyle changes, is not part of their training.

Modern Medicine Has Its place

Many people are alive today because of modern healthcare. In emergency trauma, modern medicine and its pharmaceuticals shine. When we suffer from emergencies such as an acute allergic reaction, a cortisone shot can save our lives. Those who have undergone surgeries such as heart valve replacements require medication to simply survive. If we break or fracture a bone, x-rays can help determine the damage and splints and casts can help the bone heal correctly.

How many of us have loved ones that are alive today because of modern medicine, or perhaps it is the reason we ourselves are alive. There is no doubt about it, modern medicine plays a very important part of our lives. But the problem is that the majority of surgeries and most drugs would be completely unnecessary if we made 2 changes in our lives:

1) If we changed our diet, and 2) If we reduced our stress.

Yet there is zero help provided by the medical industry or traditional doctors on the subject of nutrition and stress reduction. They are limited by the constraints of the educational system that trained them, which is focused on treatment, not on disease prevention.

The public are becoming more and more disillusioned with the healthcare system, because they are seeing that something is very wrong. But without an understanding of the root cause of failing health, they are taking it upon themselves to self-prescribe by groping in the dark, or take supplements by the handfuls. They have no idea that adopting a healthier lifestyle and a diet of whole, natural foods free of the Dirty Dozen will eradicate chronic disease in the years to come.

Medications Are Band-Aids

"Prescription drugs can never "fix" you - believing this fact is buying into a very expensive illusion. On the contrary, statistics show that drug side effects often create new issues that result in more medications."

Pills are a great band-aid that address symptoms and have little to do with fixing the problem. For example, when we have high blood pressure, this means that the body is increasing pressure throughout our body. It does not just randomly decide to raise your high blood pressure for no good reason; it is raising it in response to an underlying problem and to try and deliver more nutrients to the tissues. Doctors then prescribe pills to artificially force the blood pressure to reduce. But this does not solve the problem - it just fights the body's natural response to a problem.

Traditional American doctors will often prescribe beta blockers that can damage the heart, calcium channel blockers that can poison the arteries, and diuretics that adversely affects the kidneys. These medications temporarily relieve symptoms, but often the underlying problem that CREATED THE CONDITION TO BEGIN WITH is never addressed (often because doctors do not understand the root cause of the problem), and people remain on these pills for life.

Prescription drugs can never "fix" you - and believing they can is buying into a very expensive illusion. Taking a pill may relieve the symptoms of your condition, but will not help you to understand why the body experienced the health issue in the first place, and definitely will not educate you on how to heal and prevent the health issue from recurring. On the contrary, statistics show that their side effects often create new issues that result in more medications.

During a 12-month study, more than 2 million American hospitalized patients suffered a serious adverse drug reaction (ADR), and of these, over 100,000 died as a result. The researchers concluded that ADRs are now the 4th leading cause of death in the US after heart disease, cancer, and stroke.(1) & (2)

Often, doctors prescribe pills because they simply cannot tell you how to heal yourself and prevent recurrence. They see their patient is in pain or distressed, and find it much easier and quicker to prescribe pills. When a patient goes to a doctor and complains of severe insomnia, the usual response is to provide a prescription for Ambien, Lunesta, or one of the other many sleep aids out there. How about depression? The list of prescriptions for depression is becoming endless.

Traditional American doctors rarely have the time to sit with you to discuss cause and effect, or perhaps the recent trauma you experienced that led to your depression or insomnia. And they definitely do not have the time to help you naturally rehabilitate by recommending natural things you can do to reduce stress in your life. A good doctor, a doctor worth seeing, will work with you to get to the root cause of your insomnia or depression, and help guide you into making key lifestyle changes, as opposed to giving you drugs. This may include recommending you work with a qualified nutritionist, counselor, or psychologist. A doctor who waves you off with a prescription to foster a drug dependence is a doctor you should consider walking away from.

A natural approach to disease prevention does not typically fall under the domain of a traditional doctor, because their toolbox and their training is not focused on diet, nutrition, and disease prevention. It is focused on treating conditions that already exist, and on treating trauma. But this is the approach of natural healthcare practitioners and holistic health coaches. Luckily, the natural healthcare industry is experiencing explosive growth in the US in response to consumer demand for other alternatives.

We Are Not Without Blame

Blaming this on doctors and the medical industry is too easy and too convenient. As a society that demands instant gratification, blame and responsibility also falls on our shoulders.

For every doctor that tries to offer constructive and useful advice, there is a patient who would rather take a pill than do the hard work of changing their diet, or modifying their lifestyle to prevent illnesses. How many of us want to just pop an Ambien to help us sleep at night rather than work on why we cannot sleep? How many of us want our antidepressants meds, rather than work on ourselves to eliminate the cause of that depression?

Do NOT Fall For "RISK FACTORS"

It is called "pill popping before problems even exist." Not only do the pharmaceutical companies encourage doctors to medicate patients unnecessarily who already have health conditions, but they now have doctors treating "RISK FACTORS." In other words, a patient may be perfectly healthy, but because they "may" become sick in the future based on family history, they are treated unnecessarily with medications, despite having no physical condition at all. This type of medical care is not only shameful, but indicates a complete failure of the healthcare system to educate patients on prevention. Instead, it fosters both the long-term use and long-term reliance on unnecessary drugs.

For example, medications for "pre-diabetes" are a big money maker. Not only are these drugs completely unnecessary, but we fall victim to their dangerous and sometimes unapparent side effects (and yes... they are very dangerous which is why their side effects include words such as increased likelihood of "cancer" and "death" and "adverse heart effects").

You Are NOT A Victim Of Genetics!

"The primary determining factors of most cancers are lifestyle factors, NOT inherited genetic factors."

World Health Org.(4)

Most people are unaware that genes play a very small role in potential illnesses we develop - under 5%.(3) Contrary to popular belief, clear evidence shows that genetics plays a very small role in whether we develop the same health conditions our parents and grandparents had. It is both our environment, and the foods we eat, that are the primary factors determining gene expression. Genes reflect potential, but whether they are expressed or not depends on the environment and lifestyle factors we experience.

The World Health Organization states that the primary determinants of most cancers are lifestyle factors, such as tobacco, dietary and exercise habits, environment carcinogens and infectious agents, rather than inherited genetic factors.(4)

Millions of Americans have 1 or more of the following risk factors:

Elevated cholesterol

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Obesity

Diabetes

Are inactive

Are overweight

ALL OF THESE RISK FACTORS ARE ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE THROUGH DIET AND LIFESTYLE CHANGES! If this is the case, why on earth would we allow a doctor to feed us drugs? If you have been diagnosed with one of these "risk factors," what diet and lifestyle treatments did your doctor prescribe to you? What plan of action did he work with you on developing? What education did he/she give you on understanding healthy fats vs. unhealthy fats, and healthy carbs vs. unhealthy carbs? How about clinical studies in England linking chemicals such as artificial colors in processed food to ADD and hyperactivity? Or the many studies linking pesticides to autism and neurological disorders? How about studies in other countries outside of the US that conclusively show GMOs cause organ damage, infertility, and premature death in rodents and other animals?

Or were you simply prescribed a pill...

"All people with high blood pressure, or borderline high blood pressure, should be advised on lifestyle modifications."

British Hypertension Society Guidelines

Disease Mongering

A lot of money can be made from healthy people who believe they are sick when they are not. The term "disease-mongering" means that pharmaceutical companies now promote health conditions to fit existing drugs. The goal is to convince people that they have medical conditions that require long-term pharmaceutical drugs, and then create a drug dependence. A person can be perfectly healthy and not have any health condition, but worry they "may" be having a problem (perhaps they worry too much, don’t sleep deeply enough, get the occasional headache, or feel a little sad). They fall easy prey to the drug companies who implicitly convince them they need drugs, and succeed in fostering a lifelong drug dependency.

Here is how it works: A new disorder is created with a list of symptoms which are actually very benign. The prospective patient now fears they are suffering from this new "disease" and need drugs to treat it.

I thought I was just "fidgety" but maybe I have this new thing called "restless leg syndrome."

Could my occasional heartburn be "gastro-esophageal reflux disease" or GERD?

Sometimes I have problems sleeping, I need that "Ambien" drug to help me

We panic and make a doctor's appointment. The doctor may not know the cause of your "symptoms" and conclude that you "could" be predisposed based on these symptoms, give you a prescription, and send you on your merry way. It happens all the

"Disease mongering is the selling of sickness that widens the boundaries of illness and grows the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. It is exemplified by the many pharmaceutical industry funded disease-awareness campaigns. Disease mongering turns healthy people into patients,”

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SAD

GMOs

Soy

Standard American Diet

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